THE DECISION was as unforeseen as a hot and humid Washington summer. On June 29th the Supreme Court, in Trump v Slaughter, struck down the congressionally imposed for-cause removal protections for commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Last September, the court had foreshadowed this when it granted the Trump administration’s request for an emergency motion to bar an ousted commissioner from resuming her duties.
Many commentators lament the humbling of the FTC and the other so-called independent agencies. They misread the constitution and the decision’s real-world effects. The court was belatedly correcting its own error, and the independence of these agencies was more imagined than real. Congress lacks constitutional power to restrict the president’s removal of officers enforcing the law, and the “independent agencies” have not been meaningfully independent for decades.